It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. It’s 2009 and what makes this new year unique is there’s more reason for pessimism than optimism at what it will bring. Maybe you’ve heard some of the dire predictions about what the near future holds. A couple of weeks ago, economist and forecaster Gerald Celente caught my attention. He’s highly respected and sought after as one who analyzes trends and make incredibly accurate predictions:
“Celente, who is CEO of Trends Research Institute, has the best track record in the professional forecasting industry, so when he speaks people listen. He was almost alone in predicting well in advance the 1987 stock market crash, the 1990 collapse of the Soviet Union, and the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis. More than a year ago, in November, 2007, he told the UPI that the following year would be known as ‘The Panic of 2008,’ adding that ‘giants would tumble to their deaths,’ as indeed happened with Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and other untouchables. He forecast the sub-prime mortgage collapse and a massive 90% devaluation of the dollar from a failed rescue effort.”
“Celente [has] forecast … a social and political revolution sparked by the economic devolution. He predicts food riots, accompanied by a tax rebellion. We may see this as early as April 15th, 2009. He says that by 2012 America will be an undeveloped nation, marked by squatter rebellions by those who refuse to give up their homes or else take over the homes of others. ‘There is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of what we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more.’ Christmas as a retail bonanza will be a distant memory, reflecting a situation that he says will be ‘worse than the Great Depression,’ because the so-called safety net will collapse.
“As a forecaster of sociological change, Celente warns that ‘there’s going to be a lot of crime’ at all levels ‘worse than in the last 1929 depression’ and that the growing wealth gap between the rich and the middle class will threaten social order because the middle class everywhere in the world will become a revolutionary class using knowledge, resources, and skills ‘to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.’ He warns, ‘There will be a revolution in this country, and we’re going to see a third party in response to the bloodless coup by Wall Street’ supported by ‘a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension.’
Dr. Robert D. Crane, “The Sky Is Falling: Perils and Pitfalls of Long-Range Predictions, An Islamic Perspective” http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_sky_is_falling_perils_and_pitfalls_of_long_range_predictions_an_islamic/0017052, Dec 24, 2008
Celente is not a biblical prophet, so his predictions are not fail proof. But he is saying what we all know to be the truth. Over the next few years the situation in our country is going to get much worse before it gets better, if it gets better. I do find some people living in denial, hoping that our government, which cannot balance its own budget, will somehow save us through bailouts and stimulus packages. That’s a false hope. What we’re about to face as a nation has come about from a combination of our own sin and stupidity with a dose of God’s judgment. The road ahead is about to get rocky, but, as people who have faith in Jesus Christ, we have reason for hope.
Jacob was a man who faced grave uncertainty due mainly to his own stupidity, sin, and the judgment of God, yet the Lord gave him reason for hope. Think back to last month when we left our hero to focus on Christmas. Jacob swindled his brother Esau out of his birthright, disguised himself as brother and tricked his blind father into transferring family leadership and supernatural prosperity to him through a blessing. Rather than wait for the things he wanted, Jacob leaped ahead and seized it all through deceit. Esau swore to murder Jacob upon the death of their father, so mom came up with a scheme to get Jacob out of the country. He was to travel 550 miles to the distant land of Haran to find a wife from relatives.
Legally, Jacob had everything he wanted, but, just like our economy, it was an illusion. The reality was Jacob alone, cut off from the family fortune, running for his life to a foreign land. The road ahead of him was rocky, but God intervened through a dream to give him hope. From this episode we’ll gather some …
Certainties in the Midst of Uncertainty
Before we gather any from the story, I need to dispel an idea not dealt with here. If you intend to live anything resembling a Christian life this is one truth you have to get under your belt.
1. Reject the idolatry of clarity
Author and prayer guru, Daniel Henderson, wrote this in an e-devotion I received back in July:
“Recently I read of a profound interchange documented in a book by the renowned ethicist John Kavanaugh. He tells of when he went to Calcutta to work at ‘the house of the dying’ for three months. This experience was part of his heartfelt search for personal direction. His first morning there, he met Mother Teresa. She asked him, ‘And what can I do for you?’
“Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. ‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she asked him. He responded by explaining that he had come thousands of miles from the U.S. to find direction: ‘Pray that I have clarity.’
“She firmly responded to his request: ‘No, I will not do that.’ When asked why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ Kavanaugh commented to her that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for. She laughed and said, ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.’
“… As illustrated in this exchange, clarity can become an idol that replaces real trust in God. In many ways, we would rather understand the details of the road ahead than become more intimate with the Builder of the road. Clarity can actually become spiritually counterproductive, as it shortchanges trust, a life of faith, and moment-by-moment dependence on God.
“… Faith flourishes when we are trusting God through the unclear path of life.”
Daniel Henderson, "Trusting God When You are Trapped in Uncertainty," e-devotion from 7/17/08
I would say that Jacob was a man who sought the comfort of clarity. God turned his world upside down with uncertainty to make him into a man of faith. If you feel a high degree of confusion about life, that’s a good thing. It’s the work of God leading you to greater trust.
2. Recognize that God is bigger than circumstances
This was the reason for the dream and God’s promise to Jacob. It’s not apparent until you consider the context:
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD … Genesis 28:12-13 (NIV)
The vision Jacob received was of an ancient ziggurat, a pyramid-like structure with a stairway leading from top to bottom. Ancient people built these structures so that their city’s god could descend from heaven and receive worship in the temple at its base.
Jacob’s dream offered quite a contrast to pagan theology. God, the true and living God, did not ascend and descend upon a structure made by human hands. Angels descended on the stairway, but God does not travel between dimensions. He is pictured without the need to travel because He is omni-present – at all places all the time. He is above and beyond the stairway. Jacob saw God in heaven, but also present and speaking on earth. God was much bigger, much stronger, much more awesome that Jacob had realized. The dream was a corrective to his understanding and a means of giving him hope that this God was bigger than his circumstances.
If the vision weren’t enough, God’s word shattered the common idea of a limited, local deity.
“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.” Genesis 28:15a (NIV)
God wanted Jacob to recognize that He was not merely a god of Canaan. He wanted the man to recognize that He’s Lord of heaven and earth and that no rocky road could lead Jacob beyond His loving care. In the decades following Jacob would learn from experience the reality of the dream and the promise.
As we step into a new year with much uncertainty we must constantly recognize this certainty: God is bigger than our circumstances. Barack Obama, Henry Paulson, and Bernard Bernake are smart men, but God is smarter. The One who established the foundations of the world and created all things with wisdom comprehends a piddling, little economic system. He knows the solution to the mess we’re in, but those other guys are just pretending. Gerald Celente can plot a trend, but he cannot predict the future. God can because He’s been there and seen it already. Social Security might run out. Pension plans might lose their value. Retirement investments riding on the stock market might take a dive. But God’s riches are inexhaustible. Can we or can we not count on the One who withheld not His only Son to take care of all our needs no matter what the circumstances? The road ahead is about to get rocky, but, we have reason for hope. God is bigger than our circumstances.
3. Rely on the Lord’s promise of safe passage
God made this promise to Jacob in no uncertain terms.
“I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15b (NIV)
God did not say he would shield Jacob from difficulties. We know from the rest of the story that He faced many of them before he returned home. God did not remove Jacob from the rocky road ahead, but He did give him safe passage through it.
As His people, we can expect the same thing. The promise still hold true today. Does this mean that we will escape hardship, pain, or death? No. The promise is God’s presence and guidance through it all and, eventually, safe passage home with the Lord.
While on vacation in South Carolina last week, I learned that my friend and former principle was involved in an automobile accident. While driving his wife and 4 kids from NC to Michigan, he hit a patch of ice somewhere in Ohio. The care slid into oncoming traffic, was hit by another vehicle, and slammed into a concrete barrier. All came out alive, but with various injuries. Mom and dad had broken fingers and toes. The three boys received various facial laceration and fractured vertebrae. The one who received the worst injuries was their high school aged daughter. Eight of her front teeth were knocked out and her jaw shattered on one side. She’ll be in the hospital for at least a month in Ohio. How was God, how is God providing them safe passage? How is He fulfilling His promise …
… God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV)
God didn’t prevent the accident, but He is with them and He is their helper through it. It just so happened that the accident occurred near one of the top 3 pediatric hospitals in the country. It just so happened that an outpouring of faculty got on their knees at the school during their much needed Christmas break to pray for God’s intervention for this family. I am positive that those same Christians, along with church members, family and friends will arise by God’s prompting to more than meet their needs in the coming days. Somehow, God will relieve my friend of the deep guilt he feels over what happened, though it was not his fault. I have no doubt that in the coming years they will look back and praise God for His goodness and faithfulness through this ordeal.
I believe He’s going to test us all in the coming years as well. In good times it’s easy to trust promises like this one:
“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall be eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:31-33 (NIV)
Is this true? Is God faithful? Are you willing to stake your life on it? The issue will not be God’s faithfulness, but our trust. The road ahead is about to get rocky, but, we have reason for hope. The Lord will keep His promise of safe passage until He receives us safely at home.
4. Regard Jesus as the path to a preferred destination
As a Christian, you can actually have a hand in constructing the future simply by your obedience. Last week someone asked me what I thought we should do in light of the economic disaster coming upon us. I told him that the first priority should be to pray and work for the accomplishment of the Great Commission – to make disciples of all nations. Why? When it all hits the fan, I’d rather be in a world where the populace lives by “love your neighbor as yourself” than “survival of the fittest.” Just by being obedient and sharing our faith with lost people and training other up to follow Christ we can actually change the shape the future of our culture.
Prime time is right now. People are afraid. Their means of security are eroding. Their government is making things worse. The American dream is collapsing under a mountain of debt. Uncertainty generates fear and it’s a good fear. The gods of this age are crumbling and we have an opportunity to point people to the one thing that will not fail, Jesus Christ.
God led Jacob to fear. Then He led him to faith.
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:16-17 (NIV)
Psalm 111 tell us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” (v. 10) It was Jacob’s wake up call. He knew himself to be a sinner in the presence of a holy God. He was afraid for good reason. At that point he didn’t exactly come to faith, but he became conscious of the Lord’s work in his life and eventually became a man of great faith.
This nation is waking up to the reality that its stupidity and sin brought us to this place. Natural consequences and God’s judgment are at work. It’s a pivotal moment in history. Will the church stand up and point the bewildered to the One they should fear and, paradoxically, the only one who can relieve those fears? Will you finally get around to sharing your faith with the people in your life who are far from Christ at this moment? We can either seize this moment and reclaim our nation for Christ or squander it and settle from being just another godless Third World country.
Jesus is the solution at this hour just as He was in Jacob’s time of uncertainty. Nearly 2,000 years after Jacob’s dream of a stairway from heaven to earth, Jesus revealed that He is that stairway. After blowing one of His disciple’s mind with a simple display of omniscience, Jesus made this statement:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” John 1:51
No matter where your road leads, there’s a stairway at the end of it. The connection between God and man is the God/man Jesus Christ. Faith in His sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the dead brings us forgiveness of sin and a new heart with godly desires which transforms individuals, communities, and nation. Even better, is that the road doesn’t end here, but stretches into eternity where God will not speak to us in a dream or from a distance, but face to face. The road ahead is about to get rocky, but, we have reason for hope. Jesus is the path to a preferred destination.
